Professor John Robertson OBA
The Herald, once again yesterday, embracing one of the very same trade unions which their corporate-owners insisted that they regularly demonise and mis-represent in earlier times. Now, of course, those same unions are useful in undermining the SNP in government.
In the days before the growth of the SNP and the independence movement, corporate media hacks would have been very quick to inform their readers that fewer firefighters are now needed as fires reduce in number and that taxpayers cannot be expected to pay for them to sit around all day.
Here’s the kind of evidence they once loved but now hide from you.
From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: August 2025, published today:
Number of fires fell 10% in the last year. In 2023-24, there were 24,060 fires in Scotland, down 10% on 2022-23 and the lowest in the last ten years. There were 42 fire fatalities in 2023-24, down from 43 in 2022-23 and around the average for the last decade.
Longer term, has the number of fires increased or decreased?
Domestic fires have plummeted by 50%in the last 2 years.
Non-domestic fires fell 34.7% in last 10 years.
Staffing trend?
An 18-20% staffing reduction set against a 50% reduction in domestic fires and a 35% reduction in non-domestic fires suggests a clear business case for fewer firefighters and one that the Herald would not have hesitated to make before 2007.
Here’s the Herald in 2003
Delegates of the Fire Brigades Union voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer to end their long-running dispute – probably leaving more members of the public feeling that the union wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Like the nurses (who nonetheless earn less), firefighters deserve more; not the 40% claim they submitted all those months ago, or a substantial deal of any kind that is not conditional on the adoption of flexible working and staffing arrangements. The FBU wisely decided yesterday not to strike before war with Iraq ends. Even then, if there is still no deal and more strike days are called, the FBU risks losing even more public support. The public will not want to see troops, who have been away from their families fighting a war, returning home to find leave cancelled or restricted so that Green Goddesses can be manned. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11903322.fire-fighters-should-settle-nurses-show-the-way-ahead-in-the-public-sector/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 